The Earth's climate is determined by energy transfer from the sun to the Earth's land, oceans, and atmosphere. As the Earth rotates, the sun lights up only part of the Earth at a time, and some of that incoming solar energy is reflected and some is absorbed, depending on type of area it lights. The amount of reflection and absorption is critical to the climate. An instrument named CERES orbits the Earth every 99 minutes and measures the reflected solar energy. This animation shows the reflected solar radiation measured by CERES during 29 orbits on June 20 and 21 of 2003. Reflected solar radiation is shortwave radiation, and the most intense reflection comes from clouds, followed by ice. Land reflects only a small amount of radiation, but ocean reflects the least, which is the reason that the sun heats the oceans so effectively. Of course, there is no reflected solar radiation in regions of night. Note: This animation shows 29 orbits (2 days) of CERES measurements of outgoing shortwave radiation, from June 20-21, 2003. Data Collected: 2003/06/20-2003/06/22. Animator: Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC), Eric Sokolowsky (GST). Scientist: Bruce A. Wielicki (NASA/LaRC). Platforms/Sensors/Data Sets: Aqua/CERES, Aqua/CERES/Outgoing Shortwave Radiation Flux.

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